X-ray technology has found many practical uses in medical, industrial, and scientific fields. One of the more familiar uses of x-rays is as a diagnostic tool in the fields of medicine and dentistry. As such, x-rays are used to visualize anatomical structures and detect the presence of pathology, disease or abnormal anatomy. Advances in x-ray technology include the use of digital x-ray equipment, wherein images are captured digitally. The use of digital x-ray equipment can greatly reduce a patient's exposure to potentially harmful radiation, while providing sharper image detail and ease of processing.
However, the usefulness of x-ray technology has been limited by the difficulty in providing three-dimensional information of the object being examined. Studies in the field of dentistry have shown that for a more accurate diagnosis, two or three radiographs taken at different angles are necessary. Those radiographs are conventionally viewed individually by the examiner and processed and compared in the examiner's brain to be visualized in 3 dimensions.
Several systems have been devised to obtain three dimensional information, including transmission X-ray microscopes and Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT) scanners. These systems combine x-ray transmission systems with tomographical reconstruction methods to enable recreation of three-dimensional information from sets of flat cross-sectional images. The systems rely on a large number of different cross-sectional images of an object taken from many different angles. The digital image data is processed in a computer to yield a three-dimensional picture that can display the object being examined in great detail.
The systems, however, are complicated and generally expensive, making them somewhat inaccessible and unaffordable. In addition, the amount of the radiation necessary to produce a CAT image is very high compared to standard two-dimensional images. What is needed, then, is a system and method for extracting three-dimensional information from two-dimensional x-ray images that is relatively simple to use, is accessible and affordable, yet provides limited exposure of a patient or other object to radiation.